Knitting machine



- Oct. 13, 1942. c. N. STQVER 2,298,812

KNITTING MACHINE Filed July 9, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 lNVENTO/i' C. N. 6' TQVER Oct; 13, 1942.

C. N. STCVER KNITTING MACHINE Filed Ju ly 9, 1.938

3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2

INVENTOR (1M3 TOVER Oct. 13, "1942. v

W WWUWW WNWWAWW WWWWMNMMWWT I INVEMTOR GMSTOVER 1 ggrrokwsr a and particularly to Fig. l, the apparatus is shown Patented on. 13, 1942 xm'r'rma MACHINE Clyde N. Stover, Baltimore, Md., assignor to Western Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application July 9, 1938, Serial No. 218,301

This invention relates to knitting machines and more particularly to knitting machines for applying a knitted covering over a core such as an electrical conductor.

In high speed knitting machines one of the limiting factors in speed is needle breakage, and

this is greatly ailected by the slope of the cam lobes by which the needles are reciprocated.

An object 01' the present invention is to proa rotating cylinder and a rotating cam having l'ewer cam lobes than thread supplies, the relative speeds of rotation of the cam and needle cylinder being so correlated that the rotating cam actuates the needles in the rotating cylinder in apredetermined relation to stationary thread supplies.

Other objects and advantages will appear as the description proceeds.

A complete understanding of the invention may be had by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which.

Fig. 1 is a sectional view or a knitting machine embody g the invention:

Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration oi! the relationship between the thread supplies, needles and cam lobes;

Fig. 3 is a'plan view or a cam for actuating the needles;

Fig. 4 is a viewpartly in section taken on lines 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken, on lines 5-! of Fig. 4; and r Fig. 6 is a plane development showing one pattern of knitted structure made with the apparatus of this invention.

Referring now more in detail .to the figures,

as mounted in a housing ll having two upwardly extending standards II, which carry a cross piece l3 supporting a tubular member i4, through which a core such as an electric conductor to be covered with a knitted tubular covering is passed. I Attached'to the downwardly projecting portion of the tube I4 is a disk I! which supports a plurality of adjustable thread guides l6, each of which is provided with an eyelet in its lower end through which a thread from I 13 Claims. (Cl. 66-9) ary cops (not shown) from which the threads are removed over one end of the cops without rotating the cops, asis well known in the art.

Mounted in the housing II is a needle bed or cylinder 11 having radial slots I! cut therein in which needles I5 are adapted to reciprocate.

The upper ends of the needles are held onto the needle cylinder by a disk It made in two sections and secured in place by nut 22. The needle cylinder I1 is mounted on'a cylindrical support 23 having a pair of diametrically opposite slots 24 which coincide with similar slots on the lower portion or the needle cylinder, and keys 25 are placed in these slots to permit the needle cylinderto move longitudinally with respect to the support 23, but relative rotational movement is prevented by thekeys. The lower end of the needle cylinder is threaded and a sleeve 26 is inserted into the lower end of the cylinder support 23 and is threaded onto the needle cylinder. A

look nut 21 is threaded into the lower end 01.

the cylinder support and engages the. sleeve 26 to retain the sleeve in position. In order to ad- Just the needle cylinder up and down relative to the needles the lock'nut 21 is loosened and the sleeve 26 is rotated in one direction or the other to adjust the needle cylinder. When the needle cylinder is in its proper position the lock nut 2'! *1! the loops thus formed are too tight, the needle cylinder is adjusted upwardly to increase the distance that the needles travel below the upper rim of the needle cylinder to loosen the loops. It, on the other hand, the loops are too loose, the

needle cylinder is adjusted downwardly to tighten the loops.

Surrounding the needle cylinder is a cam housing 28 supported upon a cylindrical cam support 29. The needle cylinder and the needle support are journalled in ball bearings 3| and 32 in the cam support 18, and the entire rotating mechanism is supported in a ball bearing 13 mounted in the lower portion of the housing I I and a bearing 34 in the upper portion or the housing.

Within the cam housing 28 is a lower cam section 35 which fits into the cam housing, and rotation relative to the cam housing is prevented by a key 36. The upper cam section 31 is spaced from the lower cam section to form a groove into which the butts 20 of the needles project by a ring which fits snugly within the cam housing. The upper cam section is similarly held against rotation relative to the cam housing by a key 39. In order to hold the several sections of the cam in place an internally threaded annular ring 4| is threaded onto the cam housing 28.

In operating a knitting machine it is frequently necessary to change one or more of the needles which become broken or defective, and it is desirable to be able to replace one or more of the needles without removing the entire needle cylinder from the apparatus. For this purpose a slot is formed in the upper cam section, and a key 42 which normally closes the slot is placed in the slot. This key has a sloping portion 43 which corresponds to the slope of the cam groove at this point. Thus when it is desired to remove a needle the nut 22 and disk 2| are removed from the upper end of the cylinder; then the annular ring 4| is removed, which permits the key 42 to be withdrawn from the slot. The cylinder may then be rotated relative to. the cam so that any one of the needles is in alignment with the slot and may be withdrawn upwardly from the needle cylinder without removing the needle cylinder from the machine.

It is preferable to place the slot through which the needles are drawn on the leading slope of a cam lobe in the direction of rotation of the cam. Referring to Fig. 5, if it is assumed that the portion of the cam having the slot therein moves from left to right, it will be noted that the butt of the needle will ride on the lower side of the cam slot while the needle removing slot is on the upper side of the cam slot. By thus arranging these parts it has been found that the key,

In the ordinary knitting machine in which there is no relative rotation between the cam and the thread supplies, it is necessary to have as many cam lobes as there are thread supplies, as the result of which the cam lobes must be spaced very closely together, and therefore the slope or pitch or the cam lobes must be very high. The result is that a high lateral pressure is exerted upon the needle butts, resulting in a high needle breakage, particularly when the machines are. operated at high speeds.

Fig. 2 illustratesa practical embodiment oi the present invention in which there are only onehalf as many cam lobes as there are thread supplies. In Fig. 2 the thread supplies are indicated by reference numerals T T", T, etc., while the high points of the cam lobes are designated by C C, etc. The needles are indicated by N, N2 N etc. The needles in this embodiment rotate with the needle cylinder in a clockwise direction, and the cam rotates at three times the s eed of the needle cylinder, also in a clockwise direction. Thus it will be seen that cam lobe C has caused needle N to engage thread supply T dles.

By the time that needle N reaches thread supply 'I' cam lobe (2 will cause needle N to engage thread supply T. The pattern made with the given number of thread supplies, needles and cam lobes is shown in Fig 6, in which the needles are shown on the ordinate axis and the thread supplies on the abscissa axis.

It will be noted that in the illustration shown in Fig. 2 the number of thread supplies plus the number of cam lobes is equal to the number oi needles. This may be expressed as T-l-C=N where T is the number of thread supplies, C the number of cam lobes, and N the number of nee- With this relationship the ratio of the speed of the cam relative to the cylinder must be equal to the number of needles divided by the number of cam lobes. This may be expressed in the following equation:

8 thread supplies, 4 cam lobes, 12 needles, rotating the cam 3 times the speed of the needle cylinder and in the same direction.

8 thread supplies, 8 cam lobes, 16 needles, rotating the cam 2 times the speed of the needle cylinder and in the same direction.

10 thread supplies, 5 cam lobes, .15 needles, rotating the cam 3 times the speed of the needle cylinder and in the same direction.

4 thread supplies, 2 cam lobes, s needles, rotating the cam 3 times the speed of the needle cylinder and in the same direction.

The following is an illustration of rotating the cam and cylinder in opposite directions:

6 thread supplies, 2 cam lobes, 4 needles. rotat ing the cam 2 times the speed of the needle cylinder and in the opposite direction.

The term stationary thread supplies is used in the specification and appended claims to signify that the thread supplies do not rotate about the core being covered.

It will be understood that the natureand embodiment of the invention herein disclosed is merely illustrative and that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a knitting machine, a housing, a cam. a cylindrical; support for the cam journalled in one end oi the housing, a needle cylinder, a cylindrical support for the needle cylinder journalled in the cam support and projecting therethrough, the projecting end of the cylinder support being journalled in the other end of the housing, and

means for rotating both the cam support and cylinder support. 7

2. In a knitting machine, a frame, a cam having a cylindrical cam support journalled externally in said frame and having a pair'oi internal bearings, a needle cylinder having a cylindrical support journalled in said internal bearings oi the cam support and projecting therethrough,

said projecting end of th needle cylinder support being journalled in said frame, and means for rotating both the cam support and needle support.

3. In a knitting machine having a needle cylinder provided with reciprocating needles, cam

means for actuating the needles comprising a cam housing, a pair of cam sections forming a cam, one of said cam sectionshaving a cut-out portion in its outerperiphery, a ring in said outout portion of said cam section for spacing the cam sections to form a cam groove, and means for securing said cam sections and ring in the cam housing,

4. A knitting machine comprising a rotatable needle cylinder having reciprocable needles mounted thereon, a plurality of thread supplies, a rotatable cam having cam lobes, the number of cam lobes plus the number of thread supplies being equal to the number of needles, and means for rotating the cam at three times the speed of the needle cylinder and in the: same direction. 5. A knitting machine comprising a rotatable needle cylinder having reciprocabie needles mounted thereon, a plurality of thread supplies, a rotatable cam having cam lobes, the number of cam lobes plus the number of thread supplies being equal to the number of needles, and means for rotating the cam times as fast as the cylinder, where N is the number of needles and C the numberof cam lobes .6. A knitting machine comprising a rotatable" needle cylinder having reciprocable needles mounted thereon, a plurality of thread supplies, a rotatable cam having cam lobes, and means for rotating the cam l actuate the needles, the number of cam lobes being less than th number of thread supplies.

9. A knitting machine comprising a rotatable needle cylinder, aplurality of needles mounted in the cylinder, a rotatable cylindrical cam concentric with said cylinder having cam lobes forming a groove for actuating the needles, and stationary thread supplies, the number of cam lobes being less than the number of thread supplies.

10. A knitting machine for applying a knitted covering to a core, comprising a plurality of thread supplies, a rotating needle cylinder provided with knitting needles, and rotating cam means for actuating said needles to operate upon selected ones of the stationary thread supplies, all of the thread supplies of the machine being stationary so that allknitted ribs of the product of the machine lie in the product in straight lines parallel to the axis thereof.

11. A knitting machine for applying a knitted M covering to a core, comprising a rotating needle cylinder having reciprocable needles mounted thereon, thread supply means for supplying thread to a plurality of positions about said cylinder, and rotating cam means for actuating said needles in predetermined relation to said thread supply positions, all of the thread positions of the machine being stationary so that all knitted ribs of the product of the machine lie in the product in straight lines parallel to the axis thereof.

12. A knitting machine for applying a knitted covering to a core, comprising a rotating needle cylinder having .reciprocable knitting needles mounted thereon, a plurality of thread supplies, thread guides disposed about said cylinder to receive threads from the thread supplies, androtating cam means for actuating said needles in predetermined relation to threads carried by said guides, all of the thread guides of the machine being stationary so that all knitted ribs 0! the product of the machine li in the product in' straight lines parallel to the axisthereof.

13. A knitting machine comprising a plurality I of thread supplies, a rotating needle cylinder, needles mounted in said cylinder, a cam associated with said needles, and means causing said needles to reciprocate in predetermined relationship to the thread supplies by the rotation of both the needle cylinder and cam relative to the thread supplies, all of the thread supplies of the machine being stationary so that all knitted ribs lobes forming a groove engaged by the needles to l of the product of the machine lie in the'product in straight lines parallel to the axis thereof.

CLYDE N. s'rovna. 

